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Shhh... Listen. Can
you hear it? All over the world,
People testifying, their beliefs they herald.
Most are testifying of their problems, trials and tests,
And how of them, life is seemingly getting the best.
Now let’s go to church, have a seat, tune-in …and listen,
Listen to those who are Biblically enlightened,
And to those who with problems have been stricken.
As you do, you’ll perceive their Bible
doctrine.
Please tell me if, like me, this may be what you hear:
Testimonies that don’t seem God’s Word to revere,
Talk that’s anchored in a ‘B.C. mentality’,
Teachings that cloud out their ‘A.D. reality’.
B.C. -- Before
Christ came to offer God’s sacrifice,
That for all sin, would fully pay His just and
due price.
A.D. -- After Deliverance when God accepted,
Christ’s offering, and to us righteousness imputed. 1
The B.C. mentality declares that in this life,
Sinners we’ll always be, even though we are in Christ.
But here’s the A.D. reality:
In Christ we’re saints, spotless and holy.
Uncloaking the roots of this ubiquitous conundrum,
Points to headstrong embracing of traditions and customs.
We so strongly believe our carnal mentality,
More than what God says of our A.D. reality.
The carnal mind will have difficulty to agree,
With what God says about whom in Christ we are …really.
‘A righteous saint, no longer a sinful sinner? Who me?’
That’s the result of a split, conflicted identity.
Denying God’s power to change a sinner into a saint?
Stop. Check to see if your
prime focus may be on
‘What I ain’t.’
Healed by Christ’s stripes? Blessed with all spiritual blessings?
Given all that pertains to Godly life? Reign as kings? 2
Christian, shun
carnal thinking and renew your mind.
Recognize/resist devilish spirits that blind.
From pulpits-to-pews, your B.C. mentality,
Is simply a sinful and false humility. 3
God says you are righteous, and that by His Word to be instructed,
Dead to sin, needs met, body healed, be Spirit-filled and directed,
With long life you are blessed, and to sinners you are sent.
His Word promises convey exactly what He meant. 4
These few and many more of His Word promises to
us,
Become A.D. reality via a faith-filled
focus.
Deep meditations on what God’s Word says about us,
Develops faith to shed our identity crisis.
We say and sing, ‘I am a sinner, saved by Grace,’
But consider the conflict with which this is laced.
Am infers the present,
but saved infers past tense.
By this can you see we have a backwards sequence?? 5
Whether a victor or victim in life you will be,
Rests on your mindset and word of your testimony.
The victors’ end-of-story is written so clearly:
‘They overcame by the word of their testimony.’ 6
…Thus God’s grieved Spirit groans:
If I can’t get My people to believe what I say about them in Christ,
How will they overcome with their testimony
tests and trials of this life?
What will it take to get them to see, embrace,
and then ‘walk My talk’,
If they allow their B.C. mentality their pathways to stalk?
Without faith to believe, then say what I
say,
In their lives, how can My power I display?
If in stony hearts there is no penetration,
That leaves Me to …wait for the next generation. 7
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1 Romans 4 affirms God imputes righteousness to us who believe
in and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
2 See: Isaiah 53:4-5, Ephesians 1:3, 2 Peter 1:2-4,
Romans 5:17. A.D. means ‘anno
Domini’, Latin for ‘in the year of The Lord; since Christ was born’. By
A.D., I mean ‘After Deliverance’; since Christ was risen. Why? It
was not His birth, but through His death, resurrection and
God’s acceptance of His blood sacrifice that we have deliverance from the power
of sin. That’s when the power of God became available to, and operative in us
by The Holy Spirit.
See: Reigning in Life
3 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind, that you may prove
what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans
12:2) See also: Ephesians 4:20-24 and Colossians 3:10. Simply
put, it is wisdom to agree, and sin to
disagree with what God says about us and about any matter.
Disagreeing with what He says is essentially calling Him a liar. Releasing
faith, God calls things are not as though they are. He created us in His image,
and requires us to live by this, His kind of faith, irrespective of
what circumstances say or feelings may suggest. In our carnal world, this is
the ‘fight of faith’ into which Christ-believers are called.
4 Read and meditate on: Galatians 2:20, Psalm 91, Romans
6:11, 13, 1 Peter 2:24. Christians are sent to sinners not to identify as still
one of them or just to witness to them verbally, but mostly to display to them
the power of Jesus Christ in our lives.
5 Consider whether claiming to (now) be a sinner who was (once) saved by grace may suggest the continuation of a sin-stained conscience, referred to in Hebrews 9. Consider the alternative: I was a sinner and am now saved by Grace. The matter is more than just one of semantics.
5 Consider whether claiming to (now) be a sinner who was (once) saved by grace may suggest the continuation of a sin-stained conscience, referred to in Hebrews 9. Consider the alternative: I was a sinner and am now saved by Grace. The matter is more than just one of semantics.
6 See: Revelation 12:11
7 This is exactly what God
did with the children of Israel for 40 years in the Wilderness of Sin after
they left Egypt. Must He do the same with us, with you today?
